I know Jay has toyed with the idea of a Nova Bomb as a means to disrupt the stalemate that can often bog down the end of games. I have a different suggestion. Just an early idea, and I haven’t tried to write up any kind of formula.
Ship Slingshots
A Slingshot would be built at a star, similar to a Warp Gate. However, it would not require a corresponding structure at the destination. Instead, it would be used to throw ships a great distance and with high speed to disrupt and destroy enemy fleets and infrastructure.
Range 1.5-2x current Hyperspace Range distance. Speed would be 5x to 10x normal travel speed. When the ships arrive at the target star, they are traveling like a meteor storm, and will obliterate a portion of any orbiting fleet. Orbiting fleet size, scanning and weapon level also determines how much of the incoming attack is able to be destroyed before it impacts with infrastructure. The attack has the ability to destroy Gates, Econ, Industry and Science on the star. Possibly even reducing the NR of a star.
An actual formula would need to be devised, but my thinking is this:
Scanning and Weapons levels could each give a small percentage bonus to the fleet in orbit, improving their chance of shooting the incoming projectiles before they reach the fleet and infrastructure. The more ships in orbit, the better chance of intercepting the incoming ships, but also more likely that multiple ships will be destroyed by a single incoming ship. Not all the ships in orbit would necessarily be destroyed,
For every X ships getting past the defending fleet, 1 random infrastructure is destroyed. If all infrastructure is destroyed, then 5 points of resources are removed. Apply the Resource damage to the Natural Resources, with the limit being a reduction to 1NR.
I do not think players should be able to damage natural resources from stars. It will slow down progression and when everyone starts using slingshots, suddenly the universe is filled with stars reduced to 1 or 0 natural resources. I also think that damaging infrastructure on a star is not a good idea. Players will be mad when they have 20 industry built on a star then you send a few slingshots and they lose 10 industry.
I do think that a slingshot taking out a Warp Gate would be a good idea. Instead of a slingshot I will call it a Warp Gate Disruptor. A lost Warp Gate someone would be able to replace a lot easier than lost infrastructure. It will slow down the speeds of opponents without greatly disrupting the way the game is played now. A player should also have the ability to shoot down a Warp Gate Disruptor if he has enough ships on the star. This way the other player is able to counter a disruptor if he can gather enough ships on time. A disruptor should be able to go 2x the speed of normal ships, equal to the speed of the other players warp gates.
Maybe a single Warp Gate Disruptor can count as 50 ships. Players can send more than 1 disruptor at once if they wanted. It can cost half as much as a warp gate on the star would cost. Calculating the outcome of the battle.would be similar to calculating a normal ship battle. If a player attacks with 50 ships, it would be similar to attacking with a Warp Gate Disruptor. 100 ships attacking would be equal to 2 disruptors attacking.
Jay’s idea for the a Nova Bomb was even more extreme. From G+:
So, I think the game needs something to help speed up the end game.
A few strategy games I have played use a “nuclear” option when things start to bog down. Civilization and Rise of Nations come to mind.
What do you guys think about a Nova Bomb.
It would cost about $500 - $1000. You would launch it at a star as if you would a fleet. When it arrives, the star is completely destroyed, along with any ships at the star, or any fleets that subsequently arrive at the star.
The star would no longer be in the map, it would change the geography of the universe. It would change the number of stars in the map, and therefore reduce the number of stars required for victory.
I think it might be an interesting tactical option late game when you have heaps of cash, and just pumping out more ships and throwing them at the enemy is becoming a chore.
A destabilizing element. A game changer.
I was thing that because these things cannot be intercepted, you can throw them deep into enemy territory, destroying the most valuable stars you can see. Or, you can throw them at those “choke point” stars, the ones players use to marshal forces before launching an attack.
Anyhow, what do you think?
My thought was to mix things up somewhat in conjunction with the Warp Gate Levels idea. I’m in a game where gates are costing only $60-80 per gate. Granted that is with Plentiful Resources, but even if they were sparse, we would get to that point in a couple more weeks.
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